The unique decline of mortality in revolutionary France

This article seeks to draw historians' attention to a neglected reconstruction of the French population and its mortality rates developed by the Institut National d'Etudes Démographiques in the 1970s. The reconstruction shows a sharp decline in French mortality rates, beginning in the 1790s and continuing through the 1820s. This conflicts with recent historiography stressing the negative effects of the Revolution. This article contends that the reconstruction is plausible and that the French mortality decline was unique in Europe in this period. In turn, this suggests that the Revolution had a much more favorable impact than many historians would have us believe.